To Ladakh from Kolkata, on a cycle rickshaw

Ladakh Chale Rickshawala, a 64-minute documentary that won this year’s National Award in the ‘best exploration/adventure film’ category, is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. It is film about a 65-day journey that Satyen Das, a cycle rickshawala from Kolkata, who made it to Ladakh nearly 3,000km away in 2014 on his humble cycle rickshaw. Das’s feat is heroic, undoubtedly, but so is filmmaker Indrani Chakrabarti’s belief in the project and her endeavours to see it to fruition. Chakrabarti met Das while he was ferrying her on his rickshaw – she lives in Naktala, a neighbourhood in south Kolkata where he plies his vehicle. He got talking, and told her about his plans to visit Ladakh – on his rickshaw. Visiting new places was his passion, and since he couldn’t afford train or bus tickets, he would go on his rickshaw, he said. He had already been to Puri, the temple town in Odisha, on his rickshaw in 2007, along with his wife and daughter. The next year, he’d taken them to Rohtang Pass in Himachal, a snow-covered mountainous stretch at an altitude of 13,050ft. 

Chakrabarti saw a potential film in Das’s journey, but there were hurdles – lack of funds being the biggest. “We could not afford the high production cost of accompanying him to Leh so we thought of an alternative. We taught Das how to use a simple handy-cam, and after accompanying him till Burdwan, let him go with the handycam and 15 film cassettes,” Chakrabarti says. 

Das had to shoot as he rode the rickshaw; sometimes, he asked passers-by to shoot. It was, however, not all smooth sailing. The camera broke down once near Benaras. Chakrabarti’s team had to go there, locate him, bring back the camera, repair it and take it back to him again. Das then went on his journey. 

Chakrabarti wanted to shoot the last leg of the journey herself, to get footage of the exotic Ladakh landscape. “But we lost him in the Kargil-Dras area, as there was no telephone network. We looked for him, asking people about a rickshawala and they identified him as he was the only rickshawala there” she adds.

It had been an adventurous, sometimes perilous, journey for the 44-year-old class VI dropout who barely makes `350 a day. At one point he even encountered a snow leopard, but thankfully the animal did not attack. The stretch near Zoji La was especially strenuous given the lack of oxygen at such high altitudes and the cold weather. It got so difficult that he had to offload his gear – a sleeping bag, tent, gas stove, pot, some provisions – on the roadside, and come back for it after he’d gone some distance. Mostly, he slept inside the sleeping bag. Sometimes he’d find shelter in schools, or wherever people were kind enough to let him in. As for a bath, Das says, it was anywhere on the roadside, in canals or ponds.         

While the Ladakh trip had been funded by his local club, Das says he saves money to make these trips. “My wife, who earns `5,000 a month working as a maid, is very supportive. Whenever I leave, I leave behind some money for her and take some for myself. Once, I sold my cycle rickshaw and went on a 403-day tour on a cycle. Our standard of living is not very high so we can manage with little money.” Das also has a daughter who studies in class IX. 

While shooting for Ladakh Chale Rickshawala was done in 2014, the film took three years to complete, with Films Division chipping in at the post-production stage. The announcement of the National Award was a dream come true, but for the unsavoury controversy over the awards ceremony meant Chakrabarti left before receiving it.

As for Das, “The film has made me a mini celebrity. People like to meet and talk to me. Many clubs and other organisations have come forward to felicitate me. My rickshaw has been taken by the Sonam Wangchuk School in Ladakh who want to keep it there to inspire visitors.”